I don't really pay attention to Joe Rogan's podcasts but this one pointed out a big difference between Chinese version and North American version of Tik Tok:
“The way China is handling it is so different than America,” said Rogan. “China’s version of TikTok celebrates academic achievements and athletic achievements. It’s all science projects. All these different fascinating things.”
What makes it even more impressive, in his view, is the fact that it has a ‘youth mode.’ It’s a feature that limits people under 14 from using the app for more than 40 minutes per day, and the shut-off time is 10pm.
He believes this is a good thing. “They’re trying to encourage achievement, right? They’re doing all these things with like this idea of engineering a society of more accomplished, more successful people.”
Social media apps are changing the basic behaviors in youth and how they deal with issues. Now kids are putting how they feel about things online instead of talking to friends and family. That informaion is being mined and analyzed to create apps, products and forum to keep folks coming back to apps like Tik Tok.
Do yourselves a favor and read the book called "Hooked" by Nir Eyal. It is the best resource available in deciphering how social apps and websites work in my opinion.